Sword Art Online: Swordsmen
by Braedan of the Mandalorians
Summary: Everyone knows that there were 1000 beta testers, but what happened to them? Here's the story of a beta tester who had once been a friend to Kirito. The story will only follow parts of the story like Kirito and Asuna to continue into ALO which will be it's own story altogether.
1. Prologue

**Welcome to my own take on SAO and the stories beyond! This story features an OC who was a beta tester like Kirito. When he entered the game, he made different choices and had his own adventures and mishaps.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Sword Art Online or any of the characters related to it. I'm a teenager. I don't really own anything. Except my OC. :)**

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**Prologue**

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I really hate this tunnel. There's an angry guy chasing me and it is showing no sign of ending soon. Of course, if I died, it wouldn't be so bad, but I still would like to avoid it. Finally I saw the light at the end of the tunnel as a sword flew past me. Great. He's a sword-thrower. I then decided to never be that sword-throwing guy. He sucks. I dodged the next sword and spun into an attack. I could feel the skill activating as I began the powerful move.

"_Razor Spin_!" I yelled as I finished the strike. He died cursing my name. Hey, he'd respawn soon enough. As I walked out of the tunnel and looked at the setting sun, I remembered everything that I had learned about this amazing game, Sword Art Online (SAO), and was once again glad to be one of the beta testers. I wished that the beta wasn't going to close in ten minutes. I sighed and logged off waking up in the real world, and then went to grab something to eat.

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Life in the real world was the same as ever. I went to school, did my work, and basically lived out my regular boring life. I was so bored that I started replaying old RPG games while I waited for the best VRMMORPG to finally be available to play once more. Later, I'd remember that feeling and laugh. Any way, soon the game would open up worldwide and I would be joining them.

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After all my waiting, today at 1:00 pm I lied down on my bed and put on my Nervegear. I looked at the ceiling and watched as the clock changed to 13:00.

"Link Start!"

**Hello again! I wanted to let you know that with a story with so many characters, I will need occasional OCs to fill in characters that I meet on my journey. By the way, I already have a disclaimer on the prologue so don't expect me to keep making them. I only own my own oc. I will list all the characters and the OCs owners at the end of the prologue as I get them.**

**Character List**

· Braedan – My OC


	2. Chapter 1

**Hello! This chapter is based strongly off of episode 1 of the anime. That's where I got Kayaba's speech from as well. Please message me to help me decide on whether or not I should have this be a separate storyline from SAO or it should change SAO altogether with a few things needed for some of the story arcs remaining the same.**

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**Chapter 1**

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As the game began to load I watched as it checked all of my senses and launched Sword Art Online. As I watched, my old character with his familiar spiked hair appeared before me to be used as my avatar once again. I grinned as I accepted that he would be my avatar for the game and was then sent into the world. My first words?

"I'm finally back."

Looking around, I stared in amazement at a player nearby.

"Kirito? Is that you?"

"Braedan? What are the chances that we'd meet up again right off the bat?" He chuckled. "I mean really, what are the odds?

"Hey we're the solo beta players. We're the luckiest guys in the entire game." I said with a grin. "Are you gonna go solo again?"

"Dunno. Maybe I'll join a guild or be a party player this time around." He replied thoughtfully. "I gotta run. Friend me so we can keep in touch."

"Got it." I said as I hit the accept button. "See you around Kirito!"

"You too Braedan!" He said as he ran off.

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I had just headed out to see what had changed about the world since the beta. I explored the world, leveling up once along the way. Around 5:30, I was suddenly teleported back to the town of beginnings, along with everyone else. I looked around for a clue to what was going on, but realized that no one had any idea at all. Near me I saw Kirito and another player teleport as well.

" Kirito. Got any idea what's going on?"

"None at all. This is Klein." he replied.

I nodded to him and decided to wait for something to happen.

I watched in amazement as the game master suddenly formed from the ceiling. He was a massive man wearing a red cloak with a gold trim. Because of the hood, we couldn't see his face.

"Attention Players, welcome to my world. My name is Akihiko Kayaba and I am in control of this world. I'm sure most of you have already noticed an item missing from your menus, the log out button. Let me assure you, this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was meant to be. You cannot log out of SAO on your own, and if any one attempts to remove your Nervegear, a transmitter in your Nervegear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull destroying you brain and ending your life. Despite my warning, families and friends of the players have tried to remove the Nervegear resulting in the game having 213 less players than when it started. They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world. As you can see international media outlets around the world have round the clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point, its safe to assume that the likelihood of a Nervegear being removed as minimal. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game. There are a few things you must remember. First, there is no longer any way to revive a player in the game. If your health points drop to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system and the Nervegear will simultaneously destroy your brain. The only way for a player to escape the game is to clear it. If you find the dungeon on this floor and beat the boss, you will advance to the next floor. Clear all 100 floors and beat the final boss to clear the game. Last, but not least, I have placed a present in the item storage of every player. Please, have a look."

I opened up my menu and selected items. There was only one new item.

"A mirror?" I selected it and caught a simple mirror. As I looked into it, I was suddenly surrounded with blue light. When it faded, I stared at the mirror in surprise. I saw... my face. My real face.

"That fracking genius." I muttered.

"How did he know what we look like?" Klein asked.

"There's a scanner that can see what our faces look like." Kirito said. I tuned out the rest of the conversation and stared at Kayaba. Why is he doing this? What does he stand to gain? I wondered.

"Right now, you're probably wondering why I, Akihiko Kayaba the creator of Sword Art Online and Nervegear would do this. Ultimately, my goal was a simple one. The reason I created Sword Art Online was to control a world of my design. As you can see, I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the Tutorial. Players, I wish you luck." And with that he disappeared. People started freaking out. I walked out of the town square and climbed onto a tall building. I looked out over the town and watched as the sun began to set.

"Looks like I'll have to take this a little more seriously than before."

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_Two Weeks Later_

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I was planning on leveling up a little bit by the end of the day, so I started off by going to a nearby field and fighting some boars. I looked around and saw a boar charging me. I readied my blade and prepared to use a sword skill. I decided on _Lance_ and struck using the skill to impale the boar, which shattered apart. I looked at the window and grinned. Level four. Nice! Suddenly, I heard a girl yelling.

"Get away from me! I'll kill you!"

That seems like it could be interesting, I thought as I started toward the sound. I looked and saw the girl surrounded by several players. All of the players wore dark ragged cloaks hiding their identities, but they obviously didn't have good intentions. They had green cursors, but that wasn't going to stop them or me.

"Five on one. Very fair. How about I join in? Five on two is still in your favor. Deal?" I said as I walked towards them.

"Get out of here if you wanna live newbie. This is our turf," said one of the players, who I assumed was the leader.

"Your turf? Whoa, I'm so sorry to be the one to tell you this, but it's not. It's a free world. Now I'm a very generous person. If you leave now, I'll just forget about this whole incident. Or, I could kill all of you right here. I'm a solo player. Being orange for a couple of days doesn't matter. Your choice. What's it gonna be?"

"Kill em both!" the leader yelled angrily.

"Wrong answer." I drew my long sword and charged at them. I attacked using the skill _Rage Spike_ on the first guy. It hit him hard and knocked him onto his back. His health was in the red, but he wouldn't die. Probably. If he stayed down. The girl was desperately was trying to block attacks from two of them at once. She wasn't doing badly, but she was being out maneuvered. I wanted to help her immediately, but I had to focus on wiping each of them out one at a time, hopefully without anyone dying. The next guy took a swing at me, but it was way too early and missed me by an inch. Maybe two inches tops. I hit him with my fastest strike that drained his HP down to yellow. The second hit to red, and the third was a punch that sent him to the ground. He was alive, but only barely. That was good. His friend was freaking out as I charged towards him and cut of his left hand. He was staring at were it had been until I knocked him to the ground.

"It'll come back if you go heal yourself instead of fighting." I warned.

He nodded shakily. "Th-th-thanks."

"Don't mention it. Now leave." I replied gruffly.

The last two had stopped attacking the girl and now faced me ready to fight.

"Finally! You guys realized that I'm the biggest threat! If you'd like I can give you some time to get ready." I said with a grin.

"Your funeral." The leader said.

The both charged me at once when I struck with _Lance_ at the other player. He hadn't expected it and took the hit head on. Knocked back, his health dropped all the way to red from that one blow. He stared at me.

"Stupid criticals. Almost killing people when I've done so well at avoiding that." I said jokingly. "Seriously though, if that had been another move, you would be dead."

He blanched and started running back to town. The leader stared at me with hate. I stared at him with glee. The girl stared at me with confusion and amazement.

"So… give up?"

"NEVER!" the leader yelled in anger. He attacked without control trying to use his anger to land a hit on me. We began a furious battle of blades where neither could defeat the other. He did manage an occasional hit, but I quickly gained the upper hand as he became tired from all his attacks. Finally I kicked him to the ground and disarmed him.

"Give up… or die. Your choice."

"Fine. I'll go. But next time, I'll win and I won't be so merciful." He said.

I let him get up and head out before collapsing in a heap.

"Well… that was exhausting… I should definitely do that more often." I mumbled from the ground.

"You're insane. You do know that right?" the girl said.

"Sanity is overrated."

"You really are completely insane."

"Must I repeat myself? By the way, my name is Braedan."

"I'm Kuro."

"Kuro… cool name. You're ok right?"

"I'm fine. What about you?"

"I still have four HP… I'm fine."

"Four health… are you joking?"

"No… I only had one hundred and seventy-one HP before hand though." I then pulled out a health potion and drank it.

"Well, I better go. Things to do, people to help, and monsters to kill." I said as I stood up.

"Wait. That's it? You come in here, save me and then just leave?"

"Would you rather I stay or what?"

"Yes… no… I don't know!"

"Fine. I'm staying. Let's go back to town. I have stuff to sell anyway."

"Ok… thanks."

"It's in the job description. Keep nice people alive. Defeat bad people. Survive and clear the game."

"Very funny."

"Thanks." We got up and started walking towards the nearest town joking and laughing as we did. I could tell that this would make a difference. To help those in need, so they could do the same. By doing this, I might have saved several people. I realized that that was how this world had to work. We had to work together.

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**One chapter down, and many to go. I just wanted to let you guys know that I do know that Kuro isn't in SAO. I really don't care. I'm going to be making up characters and changing events to suit my needs for this fic. I felt like she deserved a bit of a spotlight for a little while. Please leave a review!**


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